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OT- rural US MAIL box protection

J

Jaybird2

Member
Anyone have a good plan for protecting your mailbox from the lil rascals that seem to think it's just hilarious to beat them beyond use?

I'm thinking of fabricating a rebar "cage" more or less that my new mailbox would fit in. It'd be lightweight enough to allow it to swing on the stand that I currently have but would give it some protection.

Anyone else have any idea's or anything you've done in the past that's worked before I give this a try?

Thanks - J
 
a neighbor took a large mail box, took the door off and slid a smaller mailbox inside, then filled the gap with concrete. worked good. leave the flag on the big box.
 
Making one out of 1/2" walled 8 inch diameter pipe with welded end cap, and a side henged swinging door would be tough to decompose. I neighbor had one being driven over until he put a RR rail 6 feet into the ground and 12 inches out. He boxed the rail with 1X6 and painted it white. The kids dad came to get the car off the picket with a wrecker. Jim
 
I have an old house that keeps getting broken in to. I went out of my way to burgler proof it only to have them break in again. I quit trying and I guess since the challenge is gone they quit. The more trouble you go to the more they will get off on tearing it up.
 

I've had my mailbox deliberately damaged only one time, and it was no worse than what I could bang it back into shape, but it sure made me start thinking about some sort of stout cage around the box. I like the rebar idea. I've also had thoughts of a booby-trap, but probably will never implement such a device.
 
my parents built a brick 'container' for their box....it is about 4'h x 2.5' w x 2'd. The box is cemented in the brick. The only way they can damage it is to run into it or blow it up. If the hit it, they better have a big truck cause that thing is solid!
 
You might want to check with your lawyer if someone were to get injured while accidentally "breaking" off the mailbox.
John T, what say you??
 
My moms mail box is made from 1/4 inch steel plate and it has never been hurt since it was installed 20 plus years ago. My box has a couple of loops of 1/4 inch flat stock bent over the top of it and welded to a 1/4 inch bottom plate and all of that sits on some old truck rims as in the old split type 20 inch rims so that whole thing is very heavy and very strong
 
Buy a cheap one a pre-dent it before you put it up. No kid will bother one that someone else already got to. LOL
Kids will be kids.
I don't let it bother me too much remembering some of the things I did in my teens.
When mine get's smashed it's off to True-Value and the clerk and I have a good laugh.
Been at this address over 20 years and had 2 smashed. One was junk and I saved the second one.
Someone should sell ones that are already smashed.
Be careful about making them too strong along with the posts. Laws about that.
 
Some residents around here have their's encased in brick that looks like a short brick column. Looks nice too. Hal
 
I got a mail box made of 11 gage steel (1/8 inch thick) and mounted it on a swing away system. The post is 1 1/2 inch pipe and rests in a 2 inch pipe sleeve so the box can swing away if anything hits it. The box support is cantilevered about 3 feet. If the snow plow or a piece of farm equipment, etc hits it, the box will swing back out of the way. It's been there about 5 years and it's only been pushed back once in that time. There is a cross bolt in the post that sits in a notch in the 2 inch sleeve. No dents, but it's gonna need some paint soon. Before I got this box, I was putting up a new one every few months. The box came from Lowe's and cost about $50. There are also heavy duty plastic boxes that are supposed to withstand the vandals. Several neighbors have those and they seem to work too.
 
Set up a Game Camera. Turn to pictures over to the Postal Service. When the Postal Inspector comes to town and starts asking questions the problem will go away. This worked 50 years ago.
 
I had issues (usually after the Friday night H.S. football games) with damage to my mailbox so I fabricated a thick wall boiler plate welded mailbox with provisions for M80's or cherry bombs (explosive vent). I mounted it on thick wall large diameter steel tubing with cement to give added weight/strength. It was quite a challenge until they hooked up a 4WD vehicle and pulled it out(had black tire marks which proved it was a chore for 4WD). They were kind enough, however, to leave it in my driveway so the next time, I really added more weight and went deeper; they never tried it after that.
 
Take a large mailbox, the big country style ones, and then insert a smaller regular mailbox inside. Inbetween the two boxes, fill it with concrete, so then you have a mailbox with about 2 inches of concrete around it. Take the flag and door off of the small one inside, so you use the door of the big one. It makes the bat ring off of them really nice. Make sure you mount it securely so it doesn"t fall off too.
 
We cemented a smal box in a big box cept the big box door. One day I went to get tha mail an found 1/2 a loieville sluger layin ther. Then thay just to it ofen tha pole. We just have a junker ther now an thay dont mess with it.
 
Been at the place I live now for two years, I'm always gone due to the military. My wife has put our mailbox up 4 times on her own, a friend twice, and myself 5 times. Got tired of it called up the DOT guys got the number to state (GUY)only to be told I had to follow the states guidline, ended I just sunk a huge RR tie and painted the box "BLAZE ORANGE", now I just need to paint a bulls eye on it so people can start shooting it. GOOD LUCK!!
 
(quoted from post at 20:54:18 01/11/10) Been at the place I live now for two years, I'm always gone due to the military. My wife has put our mailbox up 4 times on her own, a friend twice, and myself 5 times. Got tired of it called up the DOT guys got the number to state (GUY)only to be told I had to follow the states guidline, ended I just sunk a huge RR tie and painted the box "BLAZE ORANGE", now I just need to paint a bulls eye on it so people can start shooting it. GOOD LUCK!!
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yellow mailbox:
strange-mailboxes.jpg
 
Pap would never put up with us kids doing any real property damage or there would be heck to pay. But, round up an old fiesty cat and stick him in the box a couple of hours before the mailman comes and be sure to put up the flag. find you a good place to watch and be ready to laugh your butt off! When that mailman opens the door that cat will run up his arm and make 9 laps around the inside of the vehicle before you can blink! Good clean redneck fun. Well not always clean for the mailman but you know what I mean.
 
Elderly lady always had a nice new looking mail box on a very light metal post. Never seemed to get trashed like several of the neighbors did 2-3 times a year.
One day when she was collecting her mail a neighbor ask how come her mail box never was smashed up? She explained it was simple, 'I just dont allow it'.
With that she turned to go, reached down, and pulled the box, post and all, out of the sleeve in the ground and walked up her lane with it over her shoulder!
 
Urban legend has it that if the delinquents hurt themselves on your reinforced mailbox, you can get slapped with a felony criminal charge and/or a civil lawsuit.
 
Went to put some letters in our plastic mail box one day and found a full pop can inside. It had gone through the side, but the box popped back into shape. I have lived here since Nov. 1968 and loose a box about every two years. Just buy the cheapest thing I can find now. Guy that used to live across the street was a school teacher and he had his blown up by a former student. The box hit his garage door and the box door was half way up my driveway. Postal inspectors did not like that and tracked the perp down. When he got out, he blew something up again and I think is still locked up.
 
After moving here about thirty years ago I got tired of buying new mailboxes every few months. I can't see the box from my house so I guess that makes it fair game. Seemed so anyway. I made a mail box out of 1/4" thick 6" square tubing and cut 6" pipe to round the top off. Looks just like the real thing. Also built the lid and flag out of heavy iron also. I put it on a 3" schedule 40 pipe with 6" channel iron to mount the box to. The pipe has "wings" welded in the lower (ground) section of the pipe so it can't be twisted out of the ground. No problems except for the paint getting beat up. It's a favorite for bottle practice but I bet the perp only does it once. Someone tried to pull it out of the groung once but it was just too much for them.
OH! A new mail carrier said I'd have to remove the "heavy" lid so I put a real lid off a mailbox on. It lasted no time so havent had a lid on my box for about twenty years. David......................
 
Renting a mailbox at the PO in town was a GREAT solution for me, and my incoming parts are available by 8:30 AM, vs. noon or later, when the mailcarrier has enough coffee at the local coffeeshop and heads out on his route.

Works for me!
 
go and find a piece of 3 or 4 inch thick wall pipe, cap off one end and feel with concrete, next attach a mail box to the pipe, then fill the mail box with concrete, put up your new mailbox, the next time someone decides to hit it, they will be surprised, don't know if this works, but i've been told
 
(quoted from post at 05:57:26 01/12/10) go and find a piece of 3 or 4 inch thick wall pipe, cap off one end and feel with concrete, next attach a mail box to the pipe, then fill the mail box with concrete, put up your new mailbox, the next time someone decides to hit it, they will be surprised, don't know if this works, but i've been told
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Hope your insurance will cover you when the delinquent's distraught parents sue you for millions because little Junior's "permanently injured" and will need medical care for the rest of his life. As the story goes, there are supposedly cases where the parents of the criminal have sued the victim, and WON.

Can't say if such a thing has ever happened, but it certainly does sound plausible. There are news stories every day of people winning lawsuits for ridiculous things, such as the woman who dropped the McDonald's coffee on herself.

I do personally know someone who has problems with drunk drivers overshooting the corner and ending up in his yard. He put a large stone in the front lawn as a barrier, but the local law enforcement forced him to remove the stone because the drunks would get hurt if they ran into it, and that somehow constituted "malicious intent."
 
When I moved in in 1985 mine was old and ratty. It has never been hit and I figured out a new one would be (like the neighbors) so I just use it like it is.

Postal regulations require that you not install a road hazard so the law is not on your side if you choose to install a hardened box on a stout post.

The best bet is a fabricated steel box on a swing away arm with the post far away from the road. I have built a few and don't think they offer the same liability as a solid post. You want to avoid killing the lady who runs off the road while swatting her kid in the back seat.
 
Jaybird you can try what I did a couple of years ago worked pretty good!! coming home late one night caught a little punk kid playing baseball with my mailbox .So he jumped in his car I followed him a mile down the road and he pulled into his driveway and stopped about 50 feet in.So I proceeded to get out of my truck and beat the s#@! out of his mailbox and yelled go get your father and we all can have a little talk !! Never heard from them since.

Dustin IL
 
(quoted from post at 09:56:04 01/12/10)
(quoted from post at 05:57:26 01/12/10) go and find a piece of 3 or 4 inch thick wall pipe, cap off one end and feel with concrete, next attach a mail box to the pipe, then fill the mail box with concrete, put up your new mailbox, the next time someone decides to hit it, they will be surprised, don't know if this works, but i've been told
Click to expand...

Hope your insurance will cover you when the delinquent's distraught parents sue you for millions because little Junior's "permanently injured" and will need medical care for the rest of his life. As the story goes, there are supposedly cases where the parents of the criminal have sued the victim, and WON.

Can't say if such a thing has ever happened, but it certainly does sound plausible. There are news stories every day of people winning lawsuits for ridiculous things, such as the woman who dropped the McDonald's coffee on herself.

I do personally know someone who has problems with drunk drivers overshooting the corner and ending up in his yard. He put a large stone in the front lawn as a barrier, but the local law enforcement forced him to remove the stone because the drunks would get hurt if they ran into it, and that somehow constituted "malicious intent."
Click to expand...
oo bad you don't have this tree out front........just hang mailbox on downstream side of it.......not your 'road hazard'.
tree_street.jpg
 
I buried to steel fence posts on the side of it.They haven't tried to baseball bat it again.

Vito
 
I'd love to ambush whomever it is...if I ever get that lucky with my timing, I might be tempted....but I'm sure I'd get just as much satisfaction in confronting them Gran Torino style.
 
We had a bunch get busted up about 15 years ago. The neighbor had a piece of power pole stuck in the ground. Had a ring made to fit around the top, then a plate welded to the ring. Did the double mailbox in concrete trick. That was the last time she replaced a mailbox. And shortly after that the mailboxes quit getting smashed.

She also has a 10 gauge under the bed. Someone told her she should have gotten a 38, and she said you have to aim a 38. With the 10, you just have to get the direction right.
 
From what I understand, I should cut down all trees in my yard on the chance some drunk runs into one. Seems if they do, I can get sued for having an obstuction in my yard that they should not have been able to hit? I should probaby remove my fence posts as well. I just replaced my granite mailbox post with a rubber one. I hope this saves me!
 
If you talk to lawyers they recommend against owning property for just that reason.

But if we can be a little reasonable, when there are specific Postal regulations against having the mailbox be a road hazard the jury will not be on your side when you testify that you intentionally reinforced your post to prevent damage by cars. Trees in the yard are a little more acceptable, and fence posts on the public easement line are designed to be far enough away from the traffic as is necessary by the government's selection of easement width.

I don't like it either but I am not dumb enough to try to solicit lawsuits.
 
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